


Two Seedlings Yet to Blossom

by DeadmanDairyland



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Fluff and Angst, Gen, also the third chapter is pretty heavy and there are a lot of implications of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-17 03:58:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16967229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeadmanDairyland/pseuds/DeadmanDairyland
Summary: Three years after graduating from Hope's Peak Academy, Makoto and Chihiro live together in an apartment.





	1. The Skirt

**Author's Note:**

> Like many of the fics I've been uploading recently, I posted these on Tumblr years ago and I'm now posting them here. Back when I first uploaded them, I couldn't come up with a name for it, so I just went with the INCREDIBLY clever (read: hilariously dumb) name "Naehiroomies AU." Thankfully, I recently looked up the meanings of the DR characters' names again, and I came up with a still cheesy but (in my opinion) much better name.
> 
> I only wrote three of these and they mostly served as standalone fics, so this overall fic is only three chapters long and doesn't really have a proper ending. However, I do have an idea in mind for... I haven't decided yet if it's going to be a reboot of this idea or a continuation. Perhaps I'll leave it open enough to interpretation that you can decide whether this is a prelude or a separate canon. Really the only thing that would affect whether it's a continuation or not is whether I decide to make Chiaki a real person or an AI in that story. Of course, none of it will matter anyway if I never get around to writing that story, but I'm just throwing this out there in case I do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "The Skirt" was originally posted on Tumblr on January 1, 2015. Everything is left intact (except for the scene skips), including the way I spelled some of the names in this fic--which, to be fair, are more accurate spellings. Truly a relic of a bygone era

Makoto Naegi was walking home from work. Along the way he passed Hope’s Peak Academy. “Has it been three years already?” he wondered.

Class 78 was a shining example of the kind of hope Hope’s Peak had to offer: sixteen students with very diverse talents under the same roof, working together as friends and acquaintances to hone their skills and build a better tomorrow. Makoto was somehow lucky enough to get in through a lottery, and he often felt like he didn’t deserve to be a part of Class 78. But he was still happy that it happened. He made some wonderful friends at Hope’s Peak, and he had just left one of his best friends for the day to be greeted by another.

Makoto remembered when he first met Chihiro Fujisaki. The poor soul was obviously not used to talking to new people. She hardly spoke at all in those first few days. But it didn’t take long for Chihiro to warm up to Makoto; his optimistic and caring nature was infectious. Over time the hope and support that seemed to flow out of Makoto endlessly gave Chihiro the courage to admit her secret to him–that she was actually a male. When he told Makoto about the bullying and the crossdressing, Makoto, with tears in his eyes, gave Chihiro a much needed hug. How anyone could even want to hurt such a kind-hearted person, Makoto couldn’t understand.

Since that moment the two had formed a powerful bond. Chihiro felt like he could tell Makoto anything, and Makoto never told a soul about Chihiro’s secret, allowing Chihiro to tell the others on his own time.

Makoto finally reached his destination: the Super Duper Ultimate Mansion Level Mansions. Not a name he would have picked, but he was still happy to have found a decent apartment. While not very spacious, the apartment had plenty of space for both him and his roommate.

Silence greeted Makoto as he entered his apartment. Makoto cautiously closed the door behind him and kicked off his shoes. “Hello? Chihiro? You here?” He made his way toward the main room, stepping around some boxes that had yet to be unpacked.

“RAWR!” Chihiro jumped out from around the corner. Startled, Makoto fell back onto one of the boxes. “OH NO! I’M SORRY!” Chihiro quickly apologized, rushing over to make sure his roommate was alright.

“It’s okay. I’m fine,” Makoto assured him. He let out a huge sigh and started removing his suit jacket and tie. “I am so glad to be home right now. Working for Kyouko has its perks but it also has its disadvantages. Most people I meet aren’t happy to see me.”

“Well, duh. You’re turning criminals over to the police.” Chihiro poked his shoulder. “I think I’d be mad too if I was a criminal.”

Makoto swatted Chihiro’s hand away and smiled. “Yeah, I guess. So, you said Oowada and Ishimaru came today to help move stuff around, right?”

“Um… about that.” Chihiro gestured for Makoto to follow him. “Alright, I hope this doesn’t bother you or anything, but I guess my things took up a bit more room than I thought they would.”

Makoto looked around the main room. Most of the room was covered floor-to-ceiling with belongings fitting of an Ultimate Programmer: computers, laptops, monitors, keyboards, video game posters, shelves full of programming material and computer games, a printer, and a paper shredder. There really wasn’t much room for anything else. There were a few gaps here and there where Makoto could put his own stuff. But Makoto understood the problem Chihiro was pointing out.

“Ah, I see.” Makoto sat down on the lone futon in the room. “So what, though? No big deal. I shared a bed with Komaru for years.”

“You don’t mind?” Relieved, Chihiro sank onto a bean bag chair. “I was worried we’d have to move things around again. I don’t think my little arms could take it!”

Makoto laughed. “Oh, I wouldn’t wish that on you, Chihiro.” He lay down on the futon. “This is fine.”

“Don’t get too comfy, Makoto. You haven’t eaten yet.” Chihiro turned on his heel to leave the room. “I’m preparing dinner, but if you’re not in the mood for ramen Hina brought over some donuts.”

“Chihiro, please. I’m a sort-of-ish cop. I’m starting to get sick of donuts.”

The programmer ignored his remark and walked to the kitchen.

Makoto stuck his tongue out at the blank spot where Chihiro used to be. “At least I think I’m funny.” He looked over to the boxes still sitting in the room. “This probably isn’t going to be the instant stuff either,” he mumbled to himself. “Chihiro’s always doing stuff for me. I need to help out more. Maybe I can help with the unpacking.” He got up and walked over to one of the boxes, assuming it was one of his own. Instead he found the last thing he expected to find: a brown skirt with suspenders.

“Oh!” He closed the box again, slapping himself. Even if it was a mistake, he had just gone through Chihiro’s stuff and he felt awful about it. “Stupid, stupid…”

Then another thought occurred to him. He could’ve sworn Chihiro was already comfortable being himself. Why did he want to keep the skirt? Was it for the memories? But he knew he couldn’t ask Chihiro. He didn’t want to upset one of his best friends over something he had no business knowing. Besides, he knew Chihiro well enough to know that, if there was some sort of significant reason for him keeping the skirt after all this time, it was something Chihiro would tell him on his own time.

 

* * *

 

That night Makoto slept like a baby. After the long day’s work he had, this was just what he needed.

Chihiro, however, didn’t sleep so well. Then again, sleeping was never his strong suit. Memories of his past often kept him up. He also had a lot of regrets, which he was often reminded of when he thought of his friends. Hina. Sakura. Kirigiri. Ikusaba. Four of the strongest people he met at Hope’s Peak were women, and it took him a surprisingly long time to realize that. And just thinking about them made him question everything he had ever known. Why couldn’t he have grown up around them instead of those bullies? Perhaps his problems would have never existed.

The programmer looked over at his bedmate. At first he thought it would be awkward, but now he was glad things worked out this way. His roommate looked so peaceful, and it gave him comfort. He looked down at one of the boxes. ‘Perhaps I should tell Makoto about the skirt before he finds out about it himself,’ he thought. Taking a few deep breaths to help further relieve his stress, Chihiro passively waited for sleep to take over.

 

* * *

 

Throughout the week Makoto tried to do whatever he could to help Chihiro unpack and move stuff around. Chihiro was happy about this, as it gave him more time to work on his programming. He had already developed a fantastic AI program in his likeness and had offered to donate a copy of it to Kirigiri to aid her and Makoto in their private detective work. He was beginning his next project and needed all the time he could possibly get.

“How could you possibly top Alter Ego?” Makoto asked him when Chihiro revealed the new project. “That program is a masterpiece!”

“You flatter me,” Chihiro said with a grin. “But no, even Alter Ego could be improved, and I’m working on something that will no doubt change the world forever! But… if it’s okay with you, I’d rather keep it a secret, at least for a little while.”

“Wow,” Makoto said, amazed. “An AI program even more advanced than Alter Ego? That is incredible! Man… It makes me wish I could have a real talent.”

Groaning, Chihiro threw a plushie at him. “Quit it. You’re awesome. Don’t forget that.”

“Whatever you say.” Makoto was clearly not convinced, but Chihiro refrained from throwing another plushie at him. “I’m gonna take a shower.” He left the room, leaving Chihiro to his own devices.

While Makoto was out of the room, Chihiro looked down at the single remaining box in their bedroom. “I’m surprised Makoto hasn’t touched this yet.” He opened the box and pulled out the skirt. “Really, it would make things easier to just tell him. I don’t know why I keep putting it off.” Chihiro changed out of his pants and put on the skirt. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt kind of happy wearing it. “Maybe… maybe it’s because I don’t feel like I’m forced to wear it?” Chihiro asked himself. It was the only explanation he could think of. He twirled, watching his skirt fly up. He giggled. “This is so much fun!” He continued to twirl, not realizing that Makoto had returned from his shower.

“Chihiro?”

Blushing madly, Chihiro held down his skirt. “M-Makoto! Um… Yeah. Th-this is awkward…”

“Eh, not really.” Makoto gave Chihiro a heartfelt smile. “I mean I’ve seen you in a skirt more often than I haven’t.”

“N-not what I meant but okay…” He sat down on the bed. “You’re probably wondering about the skirt…”

“Hey, if it’s too personal, you don’t–”

“N-no, I wanna share this. Just give a m-moment.” Chihiro took a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking of things lately. About how I was so wrong about… about my beliefs about men and women. I feel… I-I feel awful because… because Sakura and Hina and the others…”

“Uh-huh,” Makoto said, nodding.

“It’s like… eye opening, you know? Like… I feel like my reasons for pretending to be a girl all that time, it… it was a spit in the face, you know?” Chihiro’s eyes began to water. “Like… they tell me I’m a nice person and that we’re friends, b-but… I have this feeling that maybe… m-maybe they secretly don’t like me because of that.”

“No way, Chihiro,” Makoto said, shaking his head. “You’re, like, the sweetest person ever. Hina and Sakura love you.”

Chihiro buried his face in his hands. “Still, I feel horrible.  Like I betrayed them or something. And… and often I think about how worse things got for me when people thought I was a girl and pretty much expected me to be like I was. And all this time I thought maybe it was because I hated being girly.” He looked back up at Makoto. “But the past few days I’ve been putting on this skirt, and I haven’t felt that sting. I’ve actually felt really happy. But I don’t understand what it means.”

“Ah. But that’s good, isn’t it?” Makoto asked. “I mean, feeling happy about it.”

“Is… is that weird?” Chihiro asked. “Is it weird to like wearing skirts if you’re a boy?”

Makoto shrugged, still smiling at Chihiro. “Well I don’t think it’s weird, anyway. If it makes you happy, then wear it.”

With one of the cutest smiles Makoto had ever seen, Chihiro leaped off the bed and gave Makoto the biggest hug of his life. “You’re the best!” Laughing heartily, he let go of the dazed Makoto. “And don’t say you’re not or I’ll throw another plushie at you.”

“Heh… Wouldn’t want that, would we?”

 

* * *

 

Since their conversation, things had gone pretty smoothly for Makoto and Chihiro. They started inviting Asahina and Sakura over to help them exercise. While still upset about the beliefs he had before, Chihiro did his best to put them behind him, and exercising with Hina and Sakura helped him quite a bit. Chihiro was much happier now, and Makoto was just happy to see Chihiro and the others being happy. There was no despair here. There was only hope for the future.


	2. Virtual Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Virtual Girl" was originally posted on Tumblr on April 2, 2015.

“So, what’s this thing you want to show me?” Makoto asked as he peered over the seated Chihiro’s shoulder, watching as his roommate brought up a program.

“This project is still in the development stages,” Chihiro explained, “but I’ve come a long way since creating Alter Ego.” The program finished loading. “So, what do you think?”

"Whoa!” Makoto’s jaw dropped slightly. “She’s really pretty.”

“Not on my new keyboard, thanks.”

Makoto stammered defensively, and Chihiro laughed, patting his arm. “I’m just kidding! Relax! So, this is what I’ve been working on. She has her own personality and, if I can pull it off, she’ll be able to interact with anyone, and be so believably human that people will think she actually  _is_  real.”

Makoto smiled. "That sounds so cool! And if anyone could pull that off, you totally can.”

Chihiro blushed and rubbed his arm. "Aw, you’re too nice.”

“Does she have a name?” Makoto asked.

"Well… I’ve put a lot of thought into it, and I’ve decided on this.” Chihiro handed Makoto a slip of paper.

“Her name… When you say it out loud it kinda sounds like someone put our names in a blender.”

“It does?” Chihiro tapped his chin, then nodded approvingly. “Yeah, I guess it does. Anyway, I still got a lot of work to do yet. I’d like to get this finished by my birthday. It’ll be my own birthday present to me!”

“Nice. So, have you told anyone else about this?”

Chihiro closed out of the program. “I told Taka and Hina over the phone. Hina will probably talk to Sakura about it, so Sakura probably knows.” The programmer brought up another window. “Oh, hey! I got an e-mail. From… Yamada?”

“Yamada?”

Chihiro skimmed through the e-mail. "Hmm. Alright then,” he mumbled in an emotionless tone.

Makoto picked up on the change in Chihiro’s mood, and quickly became concerned. “Uh… everything okay, Chi?”

"So… apparently Yamada overheard Hina talking about the program to Sakura, and now he’s giving me… advice.”

“Uh… advice?”

“Advice on how to make, quote, ‘the most realistic 2D girl ever created.’”

The room was quiet for a moment, the only sound being the humming of the computer. Makoto coughed into his fist and ran a hand through his hair. Chihiro just sat there, having not moved a single millimeter in over a minute.

Makoto was the first to speak. “Chihiro? Are you okay?”

Another minute had passed, and Chihiro was still stiff enough to be mistaken for dead.

“…Chi–?”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”

“CHIHIRO, NO! DON’T BREAK YOUR EQUIPMENT!”

“DIE! DIE! DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!!”

 

* * *

 

“Yamada is never allowed to step foot in our home. Ever. Not even for game night.”

“Agreed.”

“Ugh.” Chihiro collapsed on the futon. “Thanks for saving my babies earlier.”

"No problem.” Makoto gave his roommate a reassuring smile. While not the poster boy for strength, it was a good thing he was strong enough to pull Chihiro away from his computers at the last second. “You would’ve done the same for me.”

“The… things… he asked for…”

“I know.” Makoto sat next to Chihiro on the futon. “I know.”

Chihiro stared blankly at the ceiling. “Kill me.”

“Hmmmm… No thanks,” Makoto said after faux-consideration. “That’s the last thing I’d want to see. You. Dead.”

“Heh… So what would you do if you found my dead body?”

“Are we really having this conversation?”

“Yes.”

“Well… um… I guess the first thing I would do is collapse on my butt out of sheer horror and sadness.”

“Yeah, that sounds like something you’d do,” Chihiro said, stifling his laughter.

“Hey!” Makoto protested, but soon he joined in the laughter too. “God, we’re so morbid.”

As they laughed away their cathartic musings, someone knocked on their door. Makoto got up and opened the door. Outside stood Nagito Komaeda holding a pamphlet in his hand. “Good afternoon!”

“Um… hi?”

Komaeda handed the pamphlet to Makoto. “Do you love hope? Do you believe hope will overcome any despair?”

“…Yes?”

Komaeda’s eyes shined like an old, faulty warehouse light. “In these darkest of times, it is always good to believe in hope!”

“What are you talking about?” Makoto asked. Darkest of times? Things seemed to be going fairly well for him.

Komaeda didn’t answer, instead leaving to go to the next apartment.

A confused Makoto stood at the door for a moment. “Weirdo,” he mumbled as he closed the door.

 

* * *

 

Not long after Komaeda’s “visit,” Makoto heard more knocking. Shoulders tense, he opened the door. He relaxed when he saw it wasn’t Komaeda. “Hey, Hina. Sakura.”

Asahina held up a box of donuts. “Hey, guys! Ready for another workout? Here’s a little incentive for ya!”

“Hina, I really think they’d be better off with protein,” Sakura said, holding up a protein shake.

Chihiro popped up out of nowhere and grabbed the box of donuts. “Makoto, you can have the protein shake.”

“…Thanks,” groaned Makoto.

 

* * *

 

After the workout, Chihiro somehow found the energy to show Hina and Sakura his new project. Makoto had no idea where that energy was coming from, especially since he could barely move without his muscles screaming at him.

“Whoa! This is even cooler than I imagined,” Hina said when she saw the virtual girl. “Can she swim? Can she run track? Can she eat donuts?”

“Well, not yet. I haven’t implemented much into her program,” Chihiro explained. “But I like your ideas, Hina! Might help in making her more human.”

“Much better than Yamada’s ideas,” Makoto quipped.

“Yeah. Yamada’s ideas were a little  _too_  human.” Chihiro cringed at the memory. “In the meantime, you can talk to her a little if you want. The program is far from finished, but Nanami should be able to communicate with you.”

Asahina began typing. “Hi, Nanami! My name is Hina! How are you?”

After a brief pause the virtual girl responded. “Hello, Hina! I am fine. A little sleepy though.”

“Aww! She’s so cute!” Asahina gushed. “Do you like sports?” she typed.

“I like sports-based video games,” Nanami replied.

“Oh, so you’re a gamer? That’s cool.”

Asahina waited for a response, but she didn’t get one. On the screen it appeared Nanami had fallen asleep. “Is she okay?” she asked Chihiro.

“She’s fine,” Chihiro assured her. “There’s a little bug in the system right now. She goes into sleep mode a lot.”

“Oh. Well thanks for showing us this, Chihiro,” Asahina said.

“This is an interesting program, Fujisaki,” Sakura added. “I sense something within her, that she is much stronger than her sleepiness shows. She has the heart of a warrior. The will of a caring individual who would put her life on the line for her friends if she were among us.”

“Uh…” Chihiro wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “Thank you, Sakura. That was a lovely sentiment.”

“You know another thing you can do,” Asahina said as she got up from the chair, “is make it so you can, like, talk to her, you know? Like, speaking instead of typing.”

“Already working on that!” Chihiro excitedly exclaimed. “That is one of the first things on my to-do list: perfecting the voice recognition program so speaking to her will be like speaking to an actual person.” He clasped his hands together and smiled the sweetest smile imaginable. “And maybe someday it will work so well, she’ll have a soul and be a living person.” A chuckle escaped Chihiro’s lips. “That… probably sounds weird, doesn’t it? Like I’m Dr. Frankenstein and I’m trying to play god.”

“Are you kidding?” Makoto gushed. “That sounds really cool! Chi, don’t feel weird about this. You keep doing what you’re doing.”

“Yeah, seriously!” Asahina agreed, giving Chihiro a little wink. “Dr. Fujistein.”

Chihiro giggled but stayed modest. “Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the support. So yeah, if you guys have any requests, just try to keep it out of the, uh, extremely explicit territory, please.”

“Yeah, I’m not going to ask what Yamada asked from you.” Asahina shuddered as she and Sakura headed for the door. “See you guys next week!”

Makoto and Chihiro waved the girls off. Once the girls were gone, Chihiro turned to Makoto, hands covering his mouth and eyes shining like diamonds. “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I CAN’T HOLD IT IN ANYMORE, I’M SO HAPPY EVERYONE LOVES MY BABY!”

Makoto just laughed and patted Chihiro on the back as the programmer continued to squee his excitement out of his system.

 

* * *

 

Elsewhere in the city lived a man who was much older than he looked. Perhaps if he was more outgoing he would have been proud of that fact, but instead he often said, usually jokingly, “I’m still a good twenty years closer to death than if I was the age I look.”

Even so, he was an optimistic man, and even more than that, a proud one. Even with all the hardships he had to face in his life, it all went away whenever he looked at that picture.

“My child… all grown up, and having come so far,” he said with a beaming smile on his face, and he turned to his computer screen. “You could have told me sooner that I had a grandkid though,” he added with a laugh. He clicked out of the program and back to the video chat. On the other side of the chat, Chihiro was sporting a big, goofy grin.

“So, are you still coming over tomorrow?”

“Of course! I haven’t seen you since you moved out. Plus, I don’t think I’ve met your friend in person yet. Is he behaving himself?”

Chihiro laughed and focused the webcam on a sleeping Makoto lying on the futon. An open manga sat delicately on his head, and he was sprawled out like a crime scene on the bed, only half-covered by the bed sheet. “That depends on how you define ‘behaving,’” the programmer quipped, setting the webcam in the position it was in before.

“He seems like quite a character.” Taichi Fujisaki smiled warmly. He was so happy that Chihiro had made such great friends at Hope’s Peak. He remembered when the poor kid was so nervous about going, fearing that it would be like any other school they tried, but Hope’s Peak turned out to be different. Taichi had never seen Chihiro smile so brightly, or joke around so much. It brought tears to his eyes.

“Is something wrong, Father?”

“No, Chihiro. Not at all.”


	3. A World Without Despair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "A World Without Despair" was originally posted on Tumblr on April 29, 2016. Like I said in the tags, this one's pretty heavy and mentions abuse in various forms in flashbacks. While not going into a great amount of detail on those situations, it still may be something some folks don't want to read about, so the warning is here for that reason.

“What’s going on, Chi?” Makoto asked as Chihiro typed at the computer. “I thought you said your dad was coming today.“

“He is, but I thought I’d get some work done today.” Chihiro pulled up the Hope’s Peak alumni database. “Nothing major. I’m looking for some impartial play testers–er, so to speak.”

“For your AI program?”

Chihiro nodded. “As much as I love our friends’ feedback, it’d be good to hear from someone we don’t know well enough.” Chihiro turned to Makoto. “Searching by day of birth should be random enough, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know if I would call that  _random_ , but–”

“Rhetorical question. I sent a few requests already.” Chihiro brought up another window. “Huh. That was fast.”

 

* * *

 

Hajime Hinata felt weird about downloading a virtual girl to his computer from a Hope’s Peak graduate. Though not as gifted as the Ultimate students, Hinata still felt a lot of pride in being a former student of one of the most prestigious high schools in the world. He was glad that the uptight Ultimate students were few and far between, and that most were rather nice and approachable.

It was this way of thinking that kept him from making a huge mistake. Believing himself to be untalented and unimportant, Hinata had once been excited about an opportunity where he could have become the most talented person in the entire school. He ultimately turned it down, however, when he found out that it would require brain surgery and terrifying experiments, something he was not willing to commit to. At first he regretfully pondered what could have been, but soon after he realized that going through such a process would spit in the face of anyone who worked hard to become the Ultimate at anything. He had far too much respect for the gifted to disgrace them like that.

So as soon as he saw that one of those gifted students asked him for help on something, he jumped at the opportunity. He would do anything to help one of Hope’s Peak’s finest, even if it was just testing their software. And while he didn’t know Chihiro Fujisaki personally, he knew that the Ultimate Programmer was said by many of his collaborators to be one of the nicest and most gifted people they had ever met. To Hinata this was a greater honor than whatever the scientists and brain surgeons at Hope’s Peak had in store for him.

The program finished downloading, and a girl appeared on the screen. “Hello!” said the virtual girl. “My name is Chiaki Nanami. What is your name?”

 

* * *

 

Taichi Fujisaki knocked on the apartment door. “I hope I make a good first impression.” He chuckled in spite of himself. “Last thing I need is this Makoto guy thinking I’m a square. Today I am the cool dad. The coolest dad. Word to your mother. That’s what Americans say, right?”

The door opened, with Makoto on the other side. Makoto relaxed his shoulders. “Ah, good. I thought it was Komaeda again.” He gave the man another look. “Hey, are you Chihiro’s dad?”

“Word up,” Taichi said with a wave.

Makoto cringed. “Please don’t do that.”

“Ah, sorry,” Taichi said sheepishly. “I overdid the cool dad thing, didn’t I?”

“You overdid  _something_ ,” Makoto said with a smile. He bowed and held out his hand. “I’m Makoto.”

Taichi returned the bow and shook Makoto’s hand. “Taichi. But you can call me whatever you want… except for Taichinchin. Please don’t call me Taichinchin.”

“Uh… okay?” Hearing the word ‘chinchin’ come out of the older man’s mouth made Makoto slightly uncomfortable. “I… assume you have a problem with people calling you that?”

Taichi nodded. “Chinchin was… a common name for both of us in the past because of… you know…”

“Oh.” Makoto finally understood, and he felt empathy for their family. “That’s rough. I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have brought it up. You seem like a good guy.” A smile returned to Taichi’s face. “Chihiro seems to have taken a liking toward you, so I’m sure of that.”

“A what?” Makoto asked, blushing.

“Huh? Oh, no, I didn’t mean like that.” Taichi scratched his head. “Then again I can’t say how Chihiro feels on anything.” He noticed Makoto was starting to feel uncomfortable again. “Ah, sorry, I’m just making things worse, aren’t I? Let’s change the subject. So where is Chihiro? I want to hug my little debugger.”

“Sleeping,” Makoto told him, “but you can come in. We’re all decent.”

“Thank you.” Taichi kicked off his shoes and followed Makoto into the main room. “So you two only have one futon?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Hmm. Maybe I should have meant it like that then.”

Makoto blushed again. “I-it’s not like that!”

“I’m not judging. Heck, I’d be perfectly happy either way!” Taichi smiled sweetly. “I want the best for my little Chihiro. He deserves to be happy, whether he’s with someone or not, whether he’s with a boy or a girl or whatever, or whether  _he_  is a boy or a girl or whatever. It never really mattered to me. What matters to me is Chihiro’s happiness.” He lightly pat Chihiro on the shoulder. “Heh… If only you were awake to hear that. I’m so proud of you, buddy.”

Chihiro opened his eyes. “You can be such a sap sometimes, Dad.”

Initially surprised at this, Taichi burst out laughing. “You little… Makoto, you see this? Pretending to be asleep, pulling a fast one on his old man?”

Makoto smiled back. “Yeah, Chihiro wanted the two of us to hang out a little first. That’s what he told me, anyway.”

“Ah, I should have been more careful when raising you,” Taichi said to Chihiro jokingly. “Sometimes I think you take way too much after your mother.”

 

* * *

 

Taichi was not a very social person, but when he was around Chihiro he was very upbeat and playful. Chihiro always looked up to Taichi for his sweet nature and optimism, and always admired him for his ability to stay focused and calm-headed when things got stressful. Chihiro firmly believed that if Taichi wasn’t such a great father, there was no way Chihiro would still be alive today. Taichi didn’t always have a way with words, but he was supportive and open-minded.

Taichi was also happy to see that Makoto was such a kind and wonderful friend to Chihiro. Makoto certainly would have had Taichi’s approval had anything else come out of their friendship, but Taichi decided not to tease them about their living situation anymore, especially after hearing that it was Chihiro’s generosity that gave Makoto his new home in the first place.

“Makoto doesn’t make a lot of money,” Chihiro had told him. “Kyoko takes jobs for next to nothing because she loves the work more than she needs the money.”

“I don’t mind it, really,” Makoto added to the conversation, mostly to defend his other best friend. “I love working with Kyoko. But I’d be hurting if I had to live on my own.”

“Kyoko offered too,” Chihiro recalled, and Makoto nodded to confirm this.

“She is also a very private person and I didn’t want to intrude there,” Makoto explained. “Or, rather, she’s private about herself and not very good at respecting the privacy of others.”

“She was the last person I told about my sex for obvious reasons.” Chihiro instinctively put his hands on his lap, but laughed regardless.

Their conversation was cut short when Makoto’s phone started ringing. “Oh! Sorry. Someone’s calling. Mind if I take this?”

“Not at all,” Taichi said, and Makoto answered his phone.

“Hello?” Makoto asked.

“Mr. Naegi, if I may speak with you just one moment,” the voice on the other end said.

“Uh… okay?” Makoto gave Chihiro an awkward glance and mouthed ‘ya-ma-da.’ Chihiro’s face immediately contorted in response.

“Something wrong?” Taichi asked his son.

“It’s… someone from our class,” Chihiro explained quietly. “He’s not a bad person or anything, but we kinda had some… disagreements recently, and he could not have picked a worse time to call.”

“What kind of disagreements?”

“I’d… rather not talk about it,” Chihiro said awkwardly.

“Sorry, dude, but we’re not hosting game night anymore,” Makoto said into the phone. “If you want to have a game night we’re going to have to have it at your place or something. I hope you understand.”

“I see. I suppose we can work something out then,” Yamada responded. “By the way, how is Mr. Fujisaki’s project going?”

“…It’s going well, I think.” Makoto looked at Chihiro with a face that pleaded for help.

“Has Mr. Fujisaki considered my suggestions on designing the perfect 2D female?”

“Yes,” Makoto said with a small hint of sarcasm. “Yes, they were considered.”

“Wonderful! I’m glad I was able to help contribute to the magical world of virtual reality!”

“Sure. Listen, sorry to cut this short, but I gotta go. Chihiro and I have plans. Sorry, Yamada. Maybe we can talk later.”

“Plans, you say? Of course! Have fun in the simulation game that is your life! The Otokonoko Mansion Life! …That’s actually a great idea. I’m gonna run it by my sister. Bye!”

Makoto was frozen in time, unaware that Yamada had already hung up. Chihiro began to grow concerned, and he waved a hand in front of Makoto’s face. Taichi just sat there, deciding it was best to not ask questions.

After what felt like an eternity, Makoto set the phone down, took a deep breath, and apologized for answering the phone.

 

* * *

  

“So, Makoto,” Taichi spoke up after a long, uncomfortable silence. “You work for a detective. What do you do, exactly? Are you a detective as well?”

“Sort of.” At this point, Makoto would talk about anything to get his mind off of what he just heard. “I guess you could say I’m the Watson to her Holmes.”

“Or the nameless narrator to her Dupin,” Chihiro chimed in.

“I have no idea who that is,” Makoto admitted. “But yeah, I help her find clues, she bounces her ideas and thoughts off me, and we enjoy each others’ company, so we really have a system going here, you know?”

Taichi nodded. “It’s good that you’re enjoying yourself at your job, Makoto. Having a job where you aren’t can really weigh down on you. So, mind if I ask you about some of your cases? Or is it all confidential?”

“Current cases shouldn’t be discussed, but I don’t think we have a rule for closed ones.”

“I see. So what was your favorite case you worked on?”

As Makoto pondered this, Chihiro spoke up again. “Tell him about the first case you helped Kyoko on!”

“Huh?” Makoto thought back to when Kyoko first introduced him to her world. “…Oh. Yeah. That one was, uh, a bit shocking…”

 

* * *

 

Years before, Hajime Hinata made the decision to not have experiments done on his brain. No one else was willing to do the experiments either, and the scientists at Hope’s Peak soon began to question the ethics behind such a procedure.

Junko Enoshima was livid. She could not have the procedure done on herself, as she needed her brain intact for her plans. Ultimate Despair could not function without her in the driver’s seat.

She took out a sheet of paper from her shirt. On it were a list of names of students working on a prototype of a virtual reality psychotherapy device. “It was going to be so great! The perfect game of Chess! The students of Hope’s Peak, my expendable pawns. Mukuro and Yasuke, my loyal knights. Fujisaki and What’s-Your-Face-Therapist-Girl, my unwitting bishops. Izuru Kamukura, my unstoppable queen. And then I, the King–King of Despair! It was so perfect!” She crumpled up the sheet and threw it over her shoulder. “How  _dare_  the Hope team take my queen before the game had even begun? Without a fresh mind to mold, I have no ace in the hole. I have no killing game, thus no rebellion, no world-ending despair, no  _second_  killing game, no large scale morality-destroying war. Does it all end here? Do I just give in to hope?” She laughed hysterically. “No! No, this is a minor setback. I just need to take matters into my own hands.”

“I don’t see what the problem is.” Mukuro Ikusaba placed a blonde wig on her head and studied herself with a mirror. “We could still do the killing game without their little test subject.”

“Ah, but it won’t be the same!” Junko exclaimed. “What’s the point of Ultimate Despair if it isn’t destroying Ultimate Hope? We  _need_  that foil, Mukuro! But it’s okay! I have things under control.”

Things were not under control for Junko Enoshima. Once her plans began falling apart, they fell apart hard. Having set aside their goal for finding the Ultimate Hope and focusing their efforts on helping their students meet their own goals, Hope’s Peak Academy came to what should have been the obvious conclusion–that their entire student body was  _already_  the Ultimate Hope. The time and money that would have been spent on experiments within the Izuru Kamukura Project were instead put into the protection of their student body. Despite Junko’s brilliant planning and Mukuro’s stealth, the two had to work under the constant eye of the academy, and they became sloppy enough to leave a trail for Kyoko Kirigiri to follow.

The first to defect from Ultimate Despair was baby-faced Yakuza boss Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, thanks to a little persuasion from Makoto Naegi, whom Kyoko had brought along once she began to understand her enemy. Kyoko knew that Makoto radiated hope and positivity, and this was the best weapon she could think of to combat Ultimate Despair. Makoto exceeded her expectations, as he had even managed to ease tensions between Kuzuryu and one of his most hated rivals, the biker gang leader Mondo Owada. This act of good will and bravery, along with the possibility of being on good terms with a private investigator that wasn’t directly affiliated with the police, gave Kuzuryu the incentive to drop out of the despair group and continue his own path.

Of course, once Kuzuryu was out of the picture, so was his personal bodyguard, Peko Pekoyama. Thanks to this and Kyoko and Makoto’s combined efforts, more members continued to leave the group until the despair sisters were left on their own. Eventually the panicking Junko–in a desperate attempt to give her fellow students the despair she craved–threatened to kill her own sister in front of the entire academy during a school event, holding her hostage with a combat knife. Realizing she was on the losing side of the war, Mukuro easily fought back and overpowered her captor, and she kept Junko restrained until the two were arrested. Mukuro had turned herself in. Junko was dragged away kicking and screaming at first, but then her emotions flipped completely and she laughed maniacally as she was taken away.

Once the excitement died down, Kyoko asked Makoto if he ever thought of a career in private investigation, believing he was naturally a protector of the innocent. After that, the two began working together officially.

 

* * *

 

“I remember hearing about that on the news,” Taichi said, smiling softly. “I was so worried about my little boy. I’m glad to hear that you helped stop whatever was happening there, Makoto.”

“Ah, it was no big deal really,” Makoto said modestly. “I mean, I was really shocked when I found out about that weird little cult, but it’s not like they could’ve done  _that_  much damage, right? People aren’t  _that_ crazy.”

There was a knock on the door, and Chihiro got up to answer it.

“Yeah, but you never know what a cult mentality can do to people,” Taichi said. “I mean if someone with as much influence as a gang leader could be taken in by it, who knows?”

“Well I’m glad we didn’t have to know.”

“Of course you can come in!” they heard Chihiro say from the door. “I hope you don’t mind a little extra company, though.”

“I-I don’t know…” a soft voice slowly whimpered.

“It’ll be okay.”

Chihiro came back into the room, followed by a young teenage boy with blonde hair. The boy kept his face down and covered it with his hands when he came into Taichi’s view. “Uh… hello.”

"Hello,” Taichi greeted back, but the boy turned away.

Makoto smiled sympathetically. “Chihiro, I’m not sure now’s the best time–”

“N-no, it’s okay,” the boy said. “I need to be strong. Like Big Bro Chiro.” He took his time, but eventually he gathered up the strength to look up to the older man. “You… look like Big Bro Chiro. Are you Big Bro Chiro’s dad? Or are you a clone from the future?”

“I am Chihiro’s father, yes,” Taichi told him. “Call me Taichi. What’s your name?”

The boy looked tense, but one reassuring look from Chihiro was enough for him to allow himself to lower his guard. He stayed silent for the time being.

“That’s okay. You don’t have to tell me.”

The boy looked confused, but he seemed to calm down a bit.

“So you know this boy, Chihiro?” Taichi asked.

Chihiro nodded and took the boy’s hand. “Hey, come with me. Let’s play outside for a bit, okay?”

“Okay,” the boy said in response.

After the two had left, Taichi turned back to Makoto. “Is that boy going to be alright?” he asked. “And how does he know Chihiro?”

“That… is a long story, too,” Makoto admitted in a sad tone. “I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt telling you about that though. Just be careful around him.”

“Alright.”

 

* * *

 

Soon after the despair sisters were arrested and Ultimate Despair disbanded completely, Kyoko and Makoto began looking through Hope’s Peak Academy and its affiliates for more open cases that needed solving. Once safety and ethics became a top priority for the schools, suspicious and amoral behavior by both students and teachers started getting reported. One case in particular caught Kyoko’s eye.

“Dr. Shingetsu, a teacher from the elementary school,” Kyoko said, handing a photo to Makoto. “Reports show he has been working on a study on the development of talent. Nothing out of the ordinary there, right?” She handed Makoto another photo, this one of a young blue-haired boy. “This is his son. An intelligent student even among the nation’s finest. Yet somehow he has been classified as a ‘troubled child.’ What do you think, Makoto?”

“Maybe he’s rebellious?” As soon as he said that, Makoto shook his head. “No, he doesn’t look like it. You said he’s intelligent. What kind of grades does he get?”

Kyoko nodded at him. “Perfect scores in all but a few courses, and nearly perfect scores in the rest. You’re getting the hang of this, Makoto. Asking all the right questions. Now look at the photo again. What do you notice about the boy? Look at his face. Anything jump out at you?”

Makoto studied the boy’s features, and nodded when he thought he found what she wanted him to see. “His eyes. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days.”

“Exactly.” She handed him another photo. “Now for the report. A security guard took this picture from the security footage and e-mailed it to me last night. What do you see in this picture?”

Makoto looked at the photo. “It’s the teacher. He’s… got medical equipment?”

“He’s  _stealing_  medical equipment. Right from under their noses. Or so he thinks.” She took the photos back from Makoto. “I’m going to look into this further. If you’d like, you can help me by trying to talk to this kid, and maybe his friends, too. You have a knack for getting people to open up to you, and I fear there is more going on here than we are aware of.”

“Right.”

Makoto did not know how he expected this case to end, but there was no way he could have been prepared for it.

He would never forget the day he found the five troubled children looking over the edge of the school’s roof. By that point he had no idea how horrible their lives had been. Makoto had tried talking to them a few times beforehand, but they avoided him like the plague. At the time he figured they just thought he was weird and intrusive. But now he could see that there truly was something bad going on in the lives of these kids–something that had driven them to this point.

“Please, stop! You don’t have to do this!”

Five pairs of eyes turned to look at him. He began to cry when he saw the fear on their faces.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but please don’t do this,” Makoto pleaded. “This isn’t the answer. We’ll help you. I promise.”

“We cannot be helped,” the girl in the wheelchair said, in a voice that was much calmer than Makoto was expecting. “If you knew why, you would know this is the only way.”

“It’s  _not_  the only way,” Makoto said as carefully as possible. “I might not know what is hurting you like this, but you just have to trust me. I don’t know who is hurting you or what they did, but you deserve better than that. You deserve better than  _them._ ”

“We… we do?” one of the kids asked.

Makoto nodded. “Yeah. And whoever is hurting you, Kyoko and I will do what we can to make sure they stop hurting you. Don’t you worry.”

The children all looked at each other, and then back at the teenager before them.

“Let me tell you a story about a friend of mine,” Makoto continued. “Out of respect for my friend, I won’t go into too many details. But this friend of mine was bullied for most of their life. People made fun of them because they didn’t fit in. They tried to hide from it, but hiding only made it worse. But they never gave up. And eventually they met the right people, people who love them and care about them. And they were able to overcome their fears, and they’re really happy now.” He held out his hand to the kids. “I know things look bad now, but please don’t give up. I promise you, there will be people who care about you, but you will never know–you will never meet them if you do this now. You just need to have hope. Hope that things will get better. I believe in you.”

The children stared at Makoto for well over a minute before the blue-haired boy stepped away from the edge. “Thank you… I trust you.”

Soon the rest of the children followed the blue-haired boy’s lead. They were all a mixture of scared and relieved, except for the eerily happy girl in the wheelchair. Makoto smiled, grateful that he was able to prevent a horrible tragedy.

As Makoto led the kids back into the building, one of them pulled on Makoto’s sleeve. The child wore what appeared to be a makeshift leather mask. “Do… you really think someone could like someone… as hideous as me?” the child asked.

Makoto felt horrible for this poor kid. What could have possibly happened to him that made him feel like this? But at the same time there was something familiar about it. Chihiro used to put himself down a lot when Makoto first met him. “I like you,” Makoto said in an attempt to comfort him, “and I think I know someone who would like you too. You know that friend I mentioned earlier? Let me talk to them. Maybe you two can meet sometime. Knowing them, I think they would love to meet you.”

The kid looked conflicted. It seemed like he wanted to believe Makoto, but couldn’t allow himself to. “Are… are you sure your friend won’t hate me? I think I’d rather be hated. Being hated is so much easier. Especially since I’m so ugly and all…”

“You say you’re ugly, but I don’t even know what you look like.”

“It’s true!” the boy cried. “Why else would my mom make me wear this stupid mask? She says I’m so hideous she can’t stand the sight of me.”

“Your  _mom_  said that?” Makoto was mortified. What kind of mother would say something like that to her own child? “I’m so sorry, kid. No one should ever get that kind of treatment from their…” He looked at the other children, who were now staring at him, and a terrifying thought dawned on him.

“They… all have…” Makoto quickly pulled out his phone to call Kyoko, fearing that her suspicions were correct.

Once the curtain had closed, the parents of four of the five children were arrested for crimes so unspeakable that Makoto nearly threw up when he learned about them, and the children were immediately placed in an orphanage. The only child that still lived with her family was the girl in the wheelchair, Monaca Towa. Though escaping the fate of the other parents mostly due to his status, Tokuichi Towa resigned from his position as the head of Towa Group once the press learned of the abused children. This would be the first of two major scandals that would destroy the Towa name.

As for the orphaned children, things were starting to look better for them. Hope’s Peak Academy personally saw to their safety and well-being, having felt responsible for not investigating the children’s situation sooner. And the children also had a frequent, friendly visitor–one they eventually looked up to as an older brother.

 

* * *

 

“That’s a… really intense story.” Taichi was not sure what to say at this point. It was clear he was heavily affected by it.

“Yeah.” Makoto turned his head to the door, as if he expected Chihiro and the boy to reappear at that moment. “I talked to Chihiro after the kids were placed in the orphanage. Chihiro was more than happy to visit them. It seems like they really like him. Jataro especially.”

“Was this Jataro just now?” Taichi asked.

“Yeah. He was the kid with the mask.”

“What?” Taichi stared at him in disbelief. “But there wasn’t a single damn flaw on his face! Not that it would have made it right if there was, but I mean hell, when I was his age I had acne all over the place! He could be a  _model_  if he wanted to.”

“That’s how messed up the whole thing was,” Makoto explained. “Their parents were the worst possible people.”

Taichi lowered and shook his head. “How can a parent do that to their child? I could never imagine talking down or laying a hand on my son. It’s bad enough I couldn’t always keep other people from doing that.” He looked up at Makoto, who was awkwardly scratching his head. “…Sorry. I shouldn’t be making this about me and Chihiro. It’s just hard to think about stuff like that. That there are people who do those things.”

“No, it’s not that,” Makoto said. “I was just thinking… I can’t believe people would hurt Chihiro either. Chihiro didn’t deserve any of that, and neither did those kids.”

Taichi stayed silent for a while, but it was clear to Makoto that there was something on his mind.

“Are you alright, Mr. Fujisaki?” Makoto asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just remembered something…”

“Remember what?”

 

* * *

 

Tokuichi Towa’s resignation and the circumstances surrounding it was the first major scandal that Towa Group had suffered, but it was not the last.  _That_  ‘honor’ went to Tokuichi’s successor: his son, Haiji Towa.

Before this second scandal, of which the company barely survived, Taichi Fujisaki worked for Towa Group. Initially he was a security guard for Towa Tower, but the company learned of his programming work on the side and promoted him to system engineer. Soon after, Taichi learned of his child’s own skills in programming and the two began working together on programs for Towa Group’s security systems.

Sometime after Tokuichi Towa’s resignation, Chihiro started working in the tower itself, rather than from home. Most of the workers in the building were accepting of a child prodigy in their workplace, as they were already used to having one as one of their bosses.

Towa Tower also had a frequent visitor: Haiji Towa, the new head of Towa Group. Taichi began to notice that Haiji’s visits became more and more common once Chihiro started working for the company, but Taichi was afraid he would lose his job if he spoke up about his concerns, and he avoided the situation for months.

This changed one day when Taichi was returning to work from a restroom break. He saw Haiji hovering over Chihiro’s shoulder, praising the young programmer’s work. But Taichi could see Haiji was leaning in a little too close, and he could see the discomfort coming from his son.

“Could I speak to you for a moment, Mr. Towa?” Taichi asked. Haiji turned toward him, a look of disappointment on his face, but he accepted Taichi’s request.

Once they were out of the room, Taichi took a deep, fearful breath, knowing it would be the last breath he would take as an employed man and a provider for his family. Taichi was not a man known for being brave, and he did not always believe in himself, but he would tear the world apart from the ground up for his son.

“I don’t want you anywhere near my child,” Taichi said, his voice somehow both wavering and stern. “And I’m– _we_  are leaving the company.”

“Now don’t be so hasty there, Mr. Fujisaki,” Haiji said. “I’m sure we can work something out. You two are my top programmers! It’d be a shame for you to leave the company like this.”

“I’m doing what’s best for Chihiro,” Taichi told him. “And what’s best for him is for us to say goodbye to this place.”

“… _Him?_ ” Haiji questioned, and Taichi covered his mouth when he realized his mistake. Haiji’s shoulders slumped. “Well shit, nevermind then.”

“…We’re done here.” Taichi walked past Haiji to get his child. “C’mon, Chihiro. We’re leaving.”

“B-but… our shift isn’t over–” Chihiro started to say, but Taichi cut him off.

“We don’t work for Towa anymore.” Taichi took Chihiro’s hand. “Let’s go home. Your mom and I will make you a nice dinner when we get back. And we’ll have ice cream too. How does that sound?”

“Y-yeah, okay!”

Weeks later, Taichi, now a freelance programmer working from home, saw a news report of a second scandal happening at Towa Group, one large enough to nearly completely destroy the reputation of the once powerful corporation. When he found out about the nature of the scandal, he knew he made the right decision in leaving the company with Chihiro.

 

* * *

 

“I’d… rather not talk about it, sorry,” Taichi said quietly. Makoto respected his wishes.

The door to the apartment opened. Chihiro and Jataro were back. Makoto and Taichi’s spirits were lifted by their sudden presence, especially when they saw Jataro was now smiling.

Taichi stood up and hugged his son. Chihiro was surprised by the sudden action, but quickly recovered and hugged his father back. Jataro started weeping happily, moved by the thought of a parent and a child smiling and crying together.

 

* * *

 

Hinata e-mailed Chihiro back with his thoughts on the virtual girl. His response was extremely positive, but he tried his best not to sound like a creep in the e-mail. The truth was, the girl was so pretty and sweet that if he had not known she was an AI he probably would have fallen in love with her. He hesitantly asked Chihiro if he could keep the program on his computer, and Chihiro even offered to update his copy when the program was complete.

They say when you go back in time and crush a butterfly in the past you could seriously alter the future.

Years ago, Hajime Hinata made the decision to not undergo experiments to make him the Ultimate Hope. An indirect result of this decision was the failure of a doomsday plan orchestrated by Junko Enoshima, the head of the secret cult-like group Ultimate Despair. The group lost faith in its cause and broke apart, and the leaders of the group were arrested and sent to prison. While Mukuro Ikusaba would eventually get out on good behavior and for being cooperative, as of the day Taichi Fujisaki met his son’s best friend Makoto, Junko Enoshima was still behind bars.

With Enoshima gone, the five children being saved by the right person, and Towa Group’s scandals destroying its legacy, there was no tragedy to be had, and many good people of this world got to live the lives they deserved.


End file.
